Whether Quinn plays one snap this season or 600, few players at Broncos training camp have been rejuvenated more by the team’s coaching change.

“It’s totally different,” Quinn said. “Very different. I try not to look back and dwell on things, but there’s no question this camp feels different than last year’s, and I feel like I’m getting to show what I can do.”

While Kyle Orton clearly is the Broncos’ No. 1 quarterback, Quinn said he has what NFL players most desire: an opportunity to compete, to push for a place on the depth chart — in this case, a shot at No. 2, where Quinn and former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow are fighting it out.

A year ago, Tebow was anointed the backup in training camp after being drafted in the first round out of Florida. As a result, Quinn got very little work.

Former Notre Dame star Quinn looks more relaxed in the pocket than he did last summer and is showing better arm strength. He has taken snaps with the No. 2 offense and has even gotten some work with the starters in the first week of training camp at Dove Valley.

“Brady, like all our quarterbacks, has done a nice job going out there and competing,” Broncos coach John Fox said. “We told Brady, and all our players, they will have the opportunity to compete.”

For Quinn, it’s a significant change.

He thought Denver was going to be the land of opportunity for him in March 2010 when Josh McDaniels, the Broncos’ coach at the time, acquired him by trading a draft pick and running back Peyton Hillis to the Cleveland Browns. Quinn made nine starts for the Browns in 2009 and a total of 12 for the team that drafted him 22nd overall in 2007.

At the time, McDaniels said he made the trade because he was “just trying to improve the competition at every spot” and that “our quarterback room is young and competitive. I think that’s a good thing for our football team.”

But just before making the trade, McDaniels had fallen for Tebow at a meeting with team officials during the NFL scouting combine. He focused more and more on Tebow as the 2010 draft approached.

By the time the draft arrived, McDaniels, having already traded for Quinn, nevertheless traded three draft picks to move back into the first round and select Tebow with the 25th overall pick. Quinn went from competing for the starting job to becoming the No. 3 quarterback.

“There’s no question that was a surprise, and without a doubt it was hard,” Quinn said. “The team trades for me and the anticipation after that trade, in the offseason, was that I would be competing with Kyle to be the starter.

“That’s how it was framed to me, that I would be competing with Kyle, so that’s what I thought it would be. But when I got to training camp last year that wasn’t the case, not at all. It was a surprise to me, a big surprise and I won’t lie, it was disappointing when it was outlined that way and then it wasn’t that way.”

Quinn is measured when he describes his dwindling practice opportunities after Tebow arrived, but several of his teammates have said that by the time the Broncos got into the early part of their schedule, Quinn was virtually a lawn ornament, often having to throw on his own as practice went on around him, just to get in some work.

“It’s like watching people you think you might be able to help go off to do something and you can’t participate,” Quinn said. “You’re just sort of left behind watching them. That’s what it was.

“I was always trying to run the scout team and mix in there a little bit when I could, but it wasn’t what was outlined to me in the beginning. But the past is past. That’s gone. I’m about moving forward.”

As the Broncos turn to the second week of training camp, Quinn said it’s “a totally different environment” at team headquarters.

Fox arrived with a clean slate for every player on the Broncos’ roster, Quinn included.

“It’s great. We’re all in there just competing, just doing what we can to move the offense,” Quinn said. “That’s all you ask for is the competition, just an opportunity to get out there and loving to be out there because you have that chance to show what you can do, how you can run the offense.

“That’s all you want. It hurts like crazy to not be the one calling the plays, to not be the guy with the ball in his hands for the last play. I’ve been that guy before and that’s the guy I want to be. But if you can’t be that guy, all you want is to know you have a fair chance to try.”